Regarding the community

I had been planning this post out most of the day, and intented to put it in Darkstorm's thread to try and end it on a positive note. But, that didn't work out. Zion just couldn't help but prod and taunt one more time, and get the thread locked.

Either way, Im going to have my say.

Regarding Darkstorm's thread. I can't say Im happy with him right now, but I know he had good intentions. He cares about the community and genuinely wanted to help.

Unfortunately, he did it in a terrible way. These kinds of public "let's all make up" threads never work (I should know, I've made about three of them myself). It wasn't necissarily darkstorm's fault things went bad, there are a lot of factors at play in those kinds of threads, no matter how good their original intent.

- People jump in who either don't know the whole truth, or had never even heard of the problem before. This just adds confusion to the debate, and a bunch of half-truths and assumptions getting tossed around on top of eveything else

- There's also the issue of people like Karbo and Frenchsnack. Really, any big-name people in the community. We're all biased, and we all have misconceptions and assumptions of our own (most of which are going to be incorrect or only partially true). Once popular, well-known or respected community members begin saying things, there are people (see the first point) who will take what they say at face value. They dont know the whole story, and they aren't familiar with individual community members' biases. This just leads a bunch of people taking sides, and it also helps biased or incorrect statements and views to be spread.

- You also have the public aspect of these threads. When someone gets pulled out into public to solve a problem, they are more likely to bow up and try to hold their ground than to make a genuine attempt at making up. That's just human nature. No one wants to drop their guard, and expose themselves like that in public.

Basically, the point of this post is to remind people that there is still hope.

We're all at eachother's throats over what? Some mean words some people said to eachother on the internet, unchecked pride and a lack of communication. Its sad, more than anything, that such minor things have caused such a fuss again and again in this community.

Its pointless and not productive at all. Its just taking time away from what we should be doing, developing a world and having fun.

Either way, I still think there's hope. Darkstorm's heart was in the right place, he just went about things in the wrong way. These kinds of interpersonal issues need to be handled privately, away from the public and away from people who don't know the full story. Only in private can people drop thier guards and check thier pride enough to make any kind of meaningful progress towards reconsiliation.

If anyone reading this truly wants to solve this community's problems, or help to make things better, that is all you need to do. Just... talk to people. Get on MSN, or AIM, or YIM or the ventrillo... hell, at least PM people on the forum of you can't do any of the other things I suggested. The only way to make things better is to interact with eachother more, to treat everyone like a person instead of text on the internet.

Thats pretty much all I have to say. Its nothing new, and Im sure it will be just as ignored as the last time it was suggested...but *shrugs* I had to at least try.

Personally, Im about done. I tried to be a good friend, I tried to be a good member of this community, I tried my best and everything still went to shit. I am so angry, and so disappointed in so many people, so many people I considered friends, right now that I'm really having trouble typing straight. I think Im just going to leave this here and go for a while. People will still be able to reach me, but I fully intent to retreat from the community for the forseeable future, at least until things begin to heal, since it seems like any thread I get involved in goes to hell.

Worst case, I guess this ain't a bad post to leave off on if nothing gets better.

Anyway, I've droned on for long enough. I don't expect this to do much, but hopefully it can help someone. Maybe at least get people thinking about what exactly they are mad about, or about how they can begin to help the community start to mend.

^this. Nothing else needs to be said.

1337th post, Cliff. Really not a bad note to go out on.


As for the rest of you, go out and talk to people, or at least, take a break like Cliff is doing. It's late today. Tomorrow I'm sure things will be better.